Jobs boost as Worksop town centre 'eyesore' becomes £3.5m education hub

Developers have been tasked with turning the former Bridge Court building into the Worksop Access for Skills Hub, with building work kicking off on April 19.

Once complete, the learning facility will offer training across a range of subjects including health and social care working in partnership with Bassetlaw Hospital, digital transformation, green technologies and and construction.

The D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership allocated £3.5million of funding to the project from its Getting Building Fund with Bassetlaw District Council appointing Lindum Group to

carry out the work.

Councillor Jo White, cabinet member for Regeneration at Bassetlaw District Council, said the new skills and education campus would give thousands of Bassetlaw people the opportunity to ‘elevate their ambitions and improve their future prospects’.

“This project is about delivering a step change for Bassetlaw, providing wider opportunities for local people and raising aspirations and ambitions,” she added.

"We have created and developed strong partnerships with skills and education providers and local partners, and we all have confidence that this will be a gateway for local people to gain excellent qualifications.

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“In addition to enhancing the further education provision already on offer in Bassetlaw, the hub will create more jobs for local people, bring a derelict building back into use, add value to our town centre and support growth, bring more people into Worksop and give confidence to the many businesses that have been decimated by the cronavirus pandemic.”

Lindum contracts manager Mark Leason said: “The site is in the town’s centre and so we will be working in quite a tight environment.

"We will be managing deliveries carefully to ensure supplies arrive as we need them, rather than arriving in bulk and being stored on site.

“Once complete, the building will feature an impressive glass canopy and state of the art technology and will be a great asset to this part of town and the wider community.”

He added that the project, which will involve a full internal rip out of the building, would take around a year to complete.

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